Google today announced the launch of the first beta build of 64-bit Chrome for Mac, following the public release of 64-bit Chrome for Windows.

Earlier this month, Google added 64-bit support to Chrome Canary for OS X, the experimental build of its Chrome web browser, but with this new beta version, testers on the Beta channel will have access to 64-bit Chrome support.

According to Google, 64-bit support for Chrome will bring several speed and security improvements to the browser, in addition to decreasing the amount of memory it uses.

Quote:

64-bit Chrome has become faster as a result of having access to a superior instruction set, more registers, and a more efficient function calling convention. Improved opportunities for ASLR enhance this version's security. Another major benefit of this change comes from the fact that most programs on a modern Mac are already 64-bit apps. In cases where Chrome was the last remaining 32-bit app, there were launch-time and memory-footprint penalties as 32-bit copies of all of the system libraries needed to be loaded to support Chrome. Now that Chrome's a 64-bit app too, we expect you'll find that it launches more quickly and that overall system memory use decreases.

64-bit support for the Windows Chrome beta was implemented in July with a stable release coming a a month afterwards, so a stable Mac release could possibly follow a similar timeline, coming in September.

Chrome added DirectWrite support for Chrome recently as well. The result is that text in Chrome looks amazing now. While DirectDraw is of course only a Windows thing, does anybody know if OS X had something similar that Chrome could utilize (or has already been utilizing)?

Chrome added DirectDraw support for Chrome recently as well. The result is that text in Chrome looks amazing now. While DirectDraw is of course only a Windows thing, does anybody know if OS X had something similar that Chrome could utilize (or has already been utilizing)?

most programs on a modern Mac are already 64-bit apps. In cases where Chrome was the last remaining 32-bit app, there were launch-time and memory-footprint penalties as 32-bit copies of all of the system libraries needed to be loaded to support Chrome.

Acknowledging the fact that they're only 6 years behind on this. Seriously - the migration from 32-bit to 64-bit predates Chrome's first release, why the hell did it take this long? Why wasn't it 64-bit out of the gate?

Windows doesn't do a good job at font smoothing so text looked too jagged. However, when running Windows on a Retina MacBook Pro, Chrome's UI and all rendered content was pixelated due to terrible scaling. Chrome now incorporates Windows Direct Write allowing for a sharp UI and high quality content. I am amazed that FireFox incorporated this so long before the "most advanced browser".

This should Apple's motto... it would fit perfectly! every year Apple announces and releases basic stuff that is "nice" to have, purely because Apple fans haven't had it the last 10 years while every other platform has... heck even dual screen in OSX is still totally iffy (yes also wonky in 10.10) compared to windows and linux.

blow the public beta yosemite out of the water on sunspider. chrome runs in all of 10 seconds while safari takes minutes. interesting is they both return very close results. something is def wrong with this preview build.

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one big feature for me however is the double light tap on the magic mouse to zoom into a paragraph or photo or video under safari.

Google seems to be using a quarter of the memory of safari as well rendering the same page.

This should Apple's motto... it would fit perfectly! every year Apple announces and releases basic stuff that is "nice" to have, purely because Apple fans haven't had it the last 10 years while every other platform has... heck even dual screen in OSX is still totally iffy (yes also wonky in 10.10) compared to windows and linux.

Anyway, 64bit chrome is good, late or not.

Um what has Apple been late on? Besides bigger iPhone screen. I love how you criticize Apple so much but then you look at your url and it says macrumors.com. Do you have scars on your back from all the whipping?

This should Apple's motto... it would fit perfectly! every year Apple announces and releases basic stuff that is "nice" to have, purely because Apple fans haven't had it the last 10 years while every other platform has... heck even dual screen in OSX is still totally iffy (yes also wonky in 10.10) compared to windows and linux.

Anyway, 64bit chrome is good, late or not.

You mean like the Macintosh, the Quicktake, the Newton, the iPod, the iPhone, the MacBook Air, and the iPhone? Yeah, Apple is ALWAYS behind...